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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday seemed to distance himself from U.S. efforts to restart peace talks and defended his recent handling of a report on war crimes in the Gaza Strip in a defiant televised address meant to boost his political standing amid growing criticism.
Top Israeli and Palestinian government officials both had words of praise for President Barack Obama following the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. The well-wishers included Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
But Obama's efforts to push a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Arabs is still a work in progress, and many in both the Palestinian and Israeli camps have been disappointed as Obama has, so far, fallen short of expectations.
History is repeating itself in the Palestinian territories. Washington refuses to engage a right-wing Palestinian group – and so spawns organizations that are even more extreme.
It happened in the 1980s, when the US balked at recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and hesitated to seek a resolution to the Middle East conflict through the creation of a Palestinian state. Those long delays helped propel the rise of the hard-line Islamist party Hamas.
U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell told reporters after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday that Washington supports the creation of a Palestinian state with "contiguous territory."
The "contiguous" Palestinian state suggests that Palestinians would be able to travel between any two places of their future state without entering Israel.
Analysts believe that Mitchell was reassuring Palestinians over its position of upholding the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian house in occupied East Jerusalem on Monday morning, witnesses said, before dismantling the foundation of another home in the same area.
Both structures were in the Al-Marwaha and Ash-Ashqariyya neighborhood of the town of Beit Hanina, they added.
Israeli forces arrived with bulldozers and besieged the At-Taleiqi family home on before forcibly evicting the five family members who were inside, onlookers told Ma'an.
President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday evening that he has instructed his envoy to the United Nations in Geneva to seek a new debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza.
During a televised speech, Abbas confirmed reports from Friday that his government had completely reversed course on the 575-page report.
“I instructed the ambassador to call for another exceptional meeting of the Human Rights Council to vote on the report, seeking to punish all who committed the most grotesque crimes against women and children in Gaza,” Abbas said.
The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will finally sign a reconciliation agreement on 15 October, effectively ending two years of disunity and violence that began in the summer of 2007.
Ma'an has learned from informed sources in Cairo that the deal proposed by Egypt will be accepted by both parties without amendment.
According to these sources, Hamas and Fatah will receive copies of the draft agreement by Monday at the latest, and its signing will be scheduled as follows.
- Drafts will be handed to Hamas and Fatah within 24 hours.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told CNN on Sunday that his country excluded Israel from a planned NATO military exercise partly due to its criticism of the IDF's winter offensive in Gaza.
Asked by CNN why Turkey excluded Israel from the exercise, Davutoglu said, "We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well. But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, (the) Israeli approach."
In another sign of increased tensions between Hamas and Fatah in light of the Palestinian Authority's controversial decision to abandon a vote at the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone Report, the Islamic movement on Sunday warned PA President Mahmoud Abbas against unilaterally calling new elections.
The Fatah Central Committee on Saturday night urged Abbas to issue a presidential decree on October 25 for holding presidential and parliamentary elections.
A jittery Israeli government reacted furiously yesterday after a top British diplomat voiced support for aspects of a UN report that could lead to prosecution of Israeli army officers for alleged war crimes.
The UK ambassador to the UN, John Sawers, told Israel Army radio that the report on last winter’s Gaza war contains “some very serious details which need to be investigated by both the Palestinian authorities and the Israeli authorities.”
He added that “serious information” in the document gives rise to the suspicion that violations of the laws of war were committed.
Almost 1,000 lawsuits alleging war crimes by Israeli ministers and military personnel have now been filed around the world, Israel has admitted.
And the situation could become immeasurably worse for Israel’s politicians and soldiers as efforts continue to have the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel and Hamas of crimes against humanity during last winter’s Gaza Strip invasion, raised at the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority made the mistake of participating in the postponement of the Goldstone report which deals with Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza without revealing and clarifying the reasons for this. However does this mistake necessitate the hard-line positions taken by the Hamas movement which is now calling for the Egyptians to postpone inter-Palestinian reconciliation?
The answer is most certainly no.
Everyone knows that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas differs much from his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, in his method of managing crises. This prompted President Abbas many times to go into isolation and sometimes threaten to resign because he could bear internal and external pressures.
A useful comparison can be made between, on the one had, internal US discourse as well as US-international discourse over the issue of the problem of Afghanistan and the extent to which Islamic extremism affects the interests of nations, and, on the other, the way the international community as well as the Arabs – amongst themselves – is addressing the report of the head of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza War, Judge Richard Goldstone. This report condemned both Israel and Hamas for committing “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity”.
George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, is dangerously close to going the way of so many others who have tried to mediate between the Palestinians and Israelis.
It was hoped that Mitchell would arrive in Ramallah Friday with something to rescue the Palestinian leadership from the doldrums that it has found itself in ever since the PLO accepted the UN to defer a vote on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes during Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza earlier this year.
The Obama administration policy in the Middle East vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict is starting to become clearer, but remains mostly unclear. It is clearer because of recent moves on such matters as the Richard Goldstone report on the Gaza war or the pressure on Israel to freeze settlements, but it would be a mistake to jump to conclusions and assume that the Obama Middle East policy is quickly reverting to the traditional American default position of being in Israel’s pocket.
A reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, the rival Palestinian parties, has been delayed, following a bitter dispute over the Palestinian decision not to back a UN report on alleged Israeli war crimes.
The deal was to be signed on October 25, clearing the way for Hamas and Fatah to co-operate in rebuilding war-damaged Gaza by preparing for Palestinian elections in the first half of 2010.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/9384
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/9384
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/9384
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/gala_2009
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101101811.html
[7] http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1009/p06s16-wome.html
[8] http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1009/p09s02-coop.html
[9] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/12/content_12213471.htm
[10] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=231558
[11] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=231495
[12] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=231354
[13] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3788612,00.html
[14] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255204773702&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[15] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israeli-officials-warn-against-support-for-un-report-1801236.html
[16] http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091011/FOREIGN/710109859/1011
[17] http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=18430
[18] http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=18429
[19] http://www.daralhayat.com/portalarticlendah/64540
[20] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=20648
[21] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=107348
[22] http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009101281249528777.html
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